Brockton man accused of beating disabled man in Boston

A Brockton man found himself behind bars once again after he was arrested on assault and other charges after MBTA Police said he punched, kicked and verbally attacked a man with cerebral palsy on the Red Line on Tuesday afternoon.

BOSTON – A Brockton man found himself behind bars once again after he was arrested on assault and other charges after MBTA Police said he punched, kicked and verbally attacked a man with cerebral palsy on the Red Line on Tuesday afternoon, according to a press release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Out on bail after allegedly exposing himself in January, Thomas Kennedy, 63, was arraigned Tuesday in South Boston Municipal Court on charges of assault and battery on a disabled person, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and a civil rights violation.

Agreeing with prosecutors, Judge Michael Bolden revoked Kennedy’s bail in connection with a Jan. 25 incident at the Forest Hills Station in Jamaica Plain on the Orange Line. Kennedy was charged in that incident with indecent exposure and disorderly conduct.

Bolden set bail on the new charges at $5,000 and ordered Kennedy to undergo alcohol and mental-health screenings should he make bail, according to the DA’s release.

The incident began Tuesday afternoon, according to the release, when a 21-year-old college student got on a Red Line train at Downtown Crossing and sat next to Kennedy.

The student told police that Kennedy smelled of alcohol and immediately began making comments about the student’s disability and calling him ethnic and homophobic slurs. The student moved away at the Andrew Square Station, but said Kennedy continued to verbally assail him and eventually punched and kicked him.

The student exited the train at JFK-UMass Station and reported the assault. He was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he described his assailant to detectives and later identified Kennedy on security camera footage, according to the release.